


A dark and stormy night

by Perishthethought



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Plushie, Romance, sfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25667851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perishthethought/pseuds/Perishthethought
Summary: A short and sweet one chapter fic about a plushie and her person
Relationships: objectum
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

She had a special human, upon finding her beloved stuffed cat was not only able to move, but also talk, accepted it with remarkable grace. Barring the shriek of “I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!” Carey took it pretty calmly. Glory had to dampen her mood with the knowledge that not all of her childhood toys, or toys in general were alive, but Carey was still delighted nonetheless. Glory however, was rather displeased. After the revelation Glory had stopped being carried to bed nightly. Usually this was a minor irritation as the couch was cold and the blankets were much too heavy for the little gray cat to lift into a more comfortable position. Glory rather missed being a bedtime buddy. Before coming to live with Carey she had sat in a store window, a favorite of the shop owner, who often spoke to Glory in the mornings when there were no customers. Over time the fluff, so to speak, between Glory’s consciousness and the world dissipated and she realized she was alive. Tearing around the store at night while learning to move and run had even brought her into the book section, she was even able to learn to read a bit on her own. Eventually she was bought by Carey and came to live in this nice house. She had always somehow known that humans couldn’t know she was alive. She wasn’t sure why but it always gave her a paralyzing sense of foreboding. But one night, she made a mistake. She had wanted to read a magazine she saw Carey leave in the living room. So she very carefully climbed out of her human’s arms and slid to the floor. Creeping through the room as she had done several times before was suddenly interrupted by the bedroom light flickering on. Carey was staring at her in disbelief and Glory froze midstep. She didn’t even drop limp as she would’ve done before, she just stopped, precariously balanced, staring in horror.   
All things considered, Carey took her stuffed cat running away to read people magazine at three in the morning remarkably well. She got a smaller coffee table and left all of her reading materials there so Glory could reach them while she was out. The first few days were awkward, Glory would instinctively freeze and drop, and Carey just wasn’t sure the etiquette on ‘What to do if your new friend suddenly becomes inanimate again’. They spent a lot of time sitting on awkward ends of the couch watching TV when Carey got home, occasionally talking about light topics, like the weather or whatever was happening on the show. Eventually the awkwardness devolved and Carey adapted to life with a stuffed roommate. They’d talk a lot, at first about their days and their dreams for the future, but eventually about their pasts too. Carey had bought Glory at the recommendation of a friend to help her sleep. She said Glory had helped a lot, and this made the little cat swell with pride. Glory thought that being useful was the best feeling. She had asked Carey why she didn’t sleep with Glory anymore, but Carey had simply waved it off, the conversation ending unresolved.  
She was wrong, as it turned out, the best feeling was actually making Carey laugh. It made Glory feel so important and special when Carey liked her jokes. She started waiting by the door for Carey after work. She’d do anything for her human, but sometimes she felt a little guilty for wanting more. Before Carey found out that Glory was alive, she’d hold her in her lap for hours, kissing her between the ears if she got up for something. Glory missed that a lot. Almost as much as sleeping in the bed. At one point her human had put on some movie, Glory didn’t remember much about it but the two humans seemed to love each other a lot. They were always touching and kissed each other on the mouth, at one point the two humans went to a fancy place with a table in a white cloth and said that they’d be together forever. This made Carey cry, but Glory was burning with jealousy. Why couldn’t she be with her human forever? What did those humans have that Glory and Carey didn’t? Glory had asked to see more movies like that, but feeling too awkward to ask, never mentioned that she was hoping for a stuffed toy falling in love with a person. There were movies about toys coming to life, sure. But none of them seemed to like their people the way Glory liked hers. Glory borrowed Carey’s laptop and tried searching for other toys with this problem, but nothing she wanted showed up. Maybe she was the only one? She had been planning on asking Carey on a date. She’d worked hard all day on an invitation made on some paper from the printer and crayons, but… what if it was too weird? What if Carey was disgusted and threw Glory away? She tried to rip up the invitation, but it’s hard to grip when you only have rounded nubs for hands, so she threw it out the open window that night while Carey was showering. Part of her fantasized about Carey finding it and saying something, but as the sun went down and the rain began, Glory resigned herself to an unhappy night on the couch.   
The night was dark, and cold, and surprisingly loud. Thunder cracked in the distance, startling Glory off the couch. Stuffed cats, unlike real cats, didn’t often land on their feet, or gracefully at all. Glory picked her overly large head off the ground and directed her button eyes to the window, lightning flashed and lit the room in a grotesque manner, momentarily stretching the shadows and making even the most innocent of objects seem menacing. This settles it Glory thought. She straightened her red bow that was sewn to her neck and took a determined step forwards before another boom sent her scurrying full force for the stairs. Slipping slightly on the wood floor the frantically running cat ran face first into the lowest step, bouncing back slightly. Glory practically threw herself to her feet and hoisted herself up the stairs. It was agonizingly slow for the scared plush, every step taking extreme effort to climb. On every step Glory cursed something different. Humans and their stupid stairs. Stupid Thunderstorms. Why am I so short? What kind of monster doesn’t carpet their steps this is absurd. Why did she have to leave me downstairs? At the final step thunder cracked and lightning split the sky at the exact same moment, Glory sunk to her knees “Why doesn’t she love me anymore?”.   
She sat there, the storm raging around the house, suddenly feeling more sad than scared. Was that why she had been left on the couch every night? Was she not good enough for Carey to love? Was she cuddled before because Carey was imagining someone better? As she sat at the top of the stairs staring at the wooden floor, she began to cry. Stuffed animals don’t produce tears per se, but they did feel. And Glory was feeling too much right now. Words weren’t enough or adequate. What at first was muffled sniffles of pain, became sobs that shook her tiny little body. Why wasn’t she good enough for Carey? Was it her bow? Was it too red? Was it because she was so small? Was it because she hadn’t been careful enough about how much she loved Carey? Was she too weird? What had she done wrong? She curled herself up against the bannister and sobbed into the darkness. Would Carey even take her in if she asked to sleep with her again? Looking up and seeing her human’s door shut firmly, Glory’s sobs became even more intense. She didn’t understand what she had done. She retreated into her sadness, not hearing the storm, or the door in front of her gently creaking open. Glory didn’t hear anything at all until she was gently picked up and found herself face to face with her person.   
“Hey! What’s wrong Glory?” Carey said, stroking the small cat's ears.   
“You don’t love me anymore!” sobbed the cat, casting an accusing paw towards the human.   
“What? That’s not true at all!” she said, taken aback  
“Yes it is! You left me downstairs! And you don’t even snuggle me at night or kiss my head while we watch tv anymore! And you closed your door cause you knew I’d be scared alone!” The last accusation was outlandish, born of Glory’s intense and sudden insecurity, but the others struck a chord with the human. She sunk down into a sitting position against the wall, gently cradling the stuffed cat.   
“Glory I- I didn’t-” her voice broke and Glory looked up when a tear landed on her nose. Glory suddenly felt very ashamed. Sure she’d been upset but what kind of toy makes their person cry? She stared up at Carey in stunned silence.   
“I just felt...Bad. All that time I was just hugging you and sleeping with you and holding you I never once asked if it was alright. I just assumed and. I thought you’d hate me.” Carey choked up, turning her face away from the little cat. Glory stood up  
“Of course I want to be cuddled! I’m a plush! It’s what we do!” Glory said, balling her paws into close approximations of fists.   
“Isn’t that kind of Speciest?” Carey said, looking into glory’s button eyes earnestly. Glory looked at her for a dumbfounded moment before starting to giggle. Carey started chuckling as well and hugged the plush to her chest. They hugged for what felt like an eternity and Glory was still disappointed when they broke away.   
“I really like you, you know,” Carey said, biting her lip.   
“I like you too.” Glory said, patting her human’s arm with her paw.   
“No I mean, I REALLY like you,” Carey said, taking Glory’s paw into her hands.   
“Yeah? I- Oh, OH.” Glory suddenly realized what her human meant. Glory thought about it for a moment.   
“Do… Do you wanna go on a date?” She suggested tentatively. Carey nodded enthusiastically. Glory felt a slight flutter in her chest.   
“Was that why you’ve been so standoffish lately? Have you been wanting to ask me out?” Glory asked.   
“Yeah I just, after getting to know you I’ve had the biggest crush and. I just felt so awkward about trying to say anything to you about it cause, like is this a thing people do? Do stuffed animals go on dates? I just didn't know how to say anything. I just, I’m-” Glory cut off her babbling human by pressing her stitched mouth to her human’s.   
“It’s okay, I like you too.”


	2. A Prequel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carey's side of the story

Carey had been having a long week. Long month really. She had been having a hard time sleeping so she bought herself a very soft stuffed cat to hold at night at the recommendation of her therapist, who suggested it might help her loneliness after her most recent break up. She had gone into the little mom and pop shop near her work, they’d had a little gray cat in the window for months, the lady who ran the shop was delighted to “Finally send the little dear home”. Carey was smitten immediately after being handed the little plush. Fitting comfortably in the crook of her arm, the little gray cat was sporting a dashing red bow and black button eyes that almost seemed intelligent. Carey had her first full night of sleep in weeks holding the cat in her arms. She named the cat glory, and took to chatting to her absently whenever she was home. She enjoyed consulting the little cat on whatever celebrity gossip she was reading. Sometimes she could almost swear that the little cat was listening with rapt attention. 

Carey was having another rough night, she’d only managed to turn in at two and was only lightly dozing when she felt Glory slip out of her arms and onto the floor. She reached onto the floor and didn’t feel the little plush so she sleepily turned on her bedside lamp. No plush, she looked up and made direct eye (button?) contact with Glory who was standing in an almost comical sneaking pose.   
“Uhm…” Carey ventured. Glory looked panicked but waved.   
“This is real?” Carey asked, glory nodded.   
“Ah well then good to know I’m not insane… so do you talk?”   
“Y-yeah,” Glory mumbled. They proceeded to spend the rest of the early morning hours in short bursts of awkward conversation. Once it was established that Glory wasn’t possessed by the spirit of a serial killer (Carey had a fondness for horror films), and that not all toys were alive (Toy Story had been one of Carey’s childhood favorites). Carey’s existential crises calmed down enough to allow her a solid hour of sleep before heading out the next day. 

Carey’s work day was largely unsuccessful. She had intended to finish programming the project she was working on, but her code was full of even more bugs than usual because her mind kept wandering over to her coworkers’ collections of figurines on their desks. Carey felt quite secure in the realization that Glory was alive, she wasn’t prone to self doubt at the worst of times, all she felt now was awkward. Had Glory wanted to be held all night? Had she been hurt by being used as a pillow? Was she bored home alone all day? Carey decided to at least fix one of those worries. She ordered magazine subscriptions regularly anyway, what was a few more? She also ordered a very short coffee table to put them on, suddenly having realized that Glory was too short to reach the edge of her current one. Carey stared at her computer screen and sighed deeply. Nothing was getting done today. 

The next few weeks were extremely awkward. Carey had been living alone and wasn’t used to someone else being around when she came home. She’d also stopped sleeping well as she’d felt too awkward to continue sleeping with Glory, so needless to say Carey was running herself ragged. They’d sit together, at opposite ends of the couch, occasionally commenting on the TV. Carey had just left the TV on reality TV for background noise, but Glory seemed to really enjoy it. She’d ask questions about humans, or what that person was doing now when the episode was obviously a rerun. Carey couldn’t help but be endeared. The little cat training her button eyes on the TV and cheering for her favorite contestants on project runway was enough to melt even the coldest of hearts. It melted Carey, who eventually found herself talking more liberally to Glory. She still wouldn’t pick her up or hold her like she did before, still finding her previous comfort with handling Glory unnerving, but she did enjoy the little cat's company. As time went on she started to rush home to see Glory, trying to find faster and faster ways to commute. She’d spend the whole ride home smiling to herself and thinking of what to watch with her while she made dinner. Eventually, she found her heart racing whenever she opened the front door. She felt like… Well, she felt like she was in love. This realization hit Carey on the subway one evening. She started to panic slightly. Firstly, Glory is a girl Carey had never even- wait, Glory is a stuffed animal! Was that a thing people did? She googled it and immediately regretted that decision. Apparently forming long lasting romantic relationships with plush toys wasnt what most people were searching for. Carey felt ashamed. She went straight into the shower when she got home, barely sparing Glory a word. The rest of the week continued with Carey frantically avoiding her stuffed roommate and making excuses for staying out longer or going to bed earlier. It was one night such as this that Carey found herself laying awake listening to a storm rage around the house. Part of her wondered if she should go see if Glory was awake, maybe company would help her stop jolting at every crack of thunder. She got up and paced around her room, footsteps almost silent on the carpet and muffled further by the howling winds. She couldn’t hear anything from down stairs, but then again, she couldn’t hear much of anything. Maybe she should just get a cup of water and see if Glory was awake on the way? No that’s stupid, making up excuses to see someone like a teenager. Carey shook the thoughts out of her head. She fought with herself for a while. Eventually settling on just trying to nonchalantly be awake and downstairs. She opened the door to find a sobbing plush nestled against the opposite wall.


End file.
